Last Friday, 81 Tweeters joined for one hour to discuss the current landscape and future of technology and social entrepreneurship in higher education. In the Twitter Chat, hosted by TechChange and AshokaU, 410 tweets were sent and 50 URLs were shared that informed of some of the most innovative and relevant advances in the space. You can view all the statistics here at …

As Jordan and I wrap up our FrontlineSMS/Ushahidi training here in Kisumu, Kenya we picked up a number of valuable observations that can be borne in mind by others as they prepare their own projects using these pieces of software.

The first and most important is to plan your “work arounds”. During our preparatory afternoon the first day we arrived, FrontlineSMS worked on my MacBook …

During the protests in Tahrir square, one Egyptian activist tweeted: “We use Facebook to schedule the protests, Twitter to coordinate, and YouTube to tell the world.” A similar phenomenon is happening with the response to the most recent Mumbai bombings, where Mumbai residents and a concerned online community are collaborating through a variety of online tools to gather information and potentially save lives. According to the …

Jordan and I are happily ensconced at the Partnership for Peace office here in Kisumu, Kenya preparing to facilitate a course with local leaders on the use of FrontlineSMS and Ushahidi. This is exciting, especially as Kenya is preparing for another round of elections soon and will be using a new voting system in this round of elections.

Freedom Fone, a service that is essentially an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) recently launched in conjunction with Frontline: SMS. It’s basically an open source software platform that takes text messaging and partners it with automated voice menus as a way to share information; it is relatively cheap and can be used by most mobile phone subscribers, of which 60% of the world is (according the …

Two weeks ago I participated in a “Technology and Peacebuilding” course taught by TechChange, at the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution (S-CAR), George Mason University. As a graduate student I am always looking for practical, hands on courses to contribute to my skill set. The course provided background on a variety of tech tools used in conflict or disaster settings; …